I was recently asked by Psychology Today to blog about adoption. Stop by and read, comment and share....Adoption Stories: Yours. Mine. Ours.
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/adoption-stories/200903/my-real-world-adopt
I will post on occasion here, but look forward to seeing you regularly in our new home.
Meredith
Monday, March 9, 2009
Monday, September 15, 2008
A reader asks: Are agencies working together?
One Real World Adopt reader asked whether the Ranch for Kids (listed in previous post, soon to be featured on 20/20) worked with A Child's Waiting. There are many adoption agencies throughout the U.S., and it's possible that someone knows someone who knows someone else...you get the idea. But whether a formal working relationship between the two exists, or if a relationship is dependent on a particular child's needs, that would be a question for the agencies. I've provided their websites here.
http://www.ranchforkids.org/
http://www.achildswaiting.com/
http://www.ranchforkids.org/
http://www.achildswaiting.com/
Thursday, September 4, 2008
20/20 segment on The Ranch for Kids postponed...keep checking your local listings!
I just received this email from Joyce Sterkel regarding postponement of the 20/20 segment featuring The Ranch for Kids.
"Dear Parents and Friends;
As much as we hate to cancel one more time, we must! ABC 20/20 has moved us forward due to the hurricanes and the Republican National Convention with its unprecedented news stories. As soon as we get a new date we will let everyone know. Many of you were looking forward to watching the program and I am sure that they will schedule us soon. They know how important this subject matter is and do not want it overshadowed by the before mentioned events. We are content to wait for the "perfect timing."
Thanks for your patience and we will let you know as soon as were are re-scheduled.
Our best wishes
Joyce Sterkel and William "Bill" Sutley
with The Ranch For Kids Staff"
November has been dubbed National Adoption Month, so I'd suspect it might air at least before the end of the year.
.
"Dear Parents and Friends;
As much as we hate to cancel one more time, we must! ABC 20/20 has moved us forward due to the hurricanes and the Republican National Convention with its unprecedented news stories. As soon as we get a new date we will let everyone know. Many of you were looking forward to watching the program and I am sure that they will schedule us soon. They know how important this subject matter is and do not want it overshadowed by the before mentioned events. We are content to wait for the "perfect timing."
Thanks for your patience and we will let you know as soon as were are re-scheduled.
Our best wishes
Joyce Sterkel and William "Bill" Sutley
with The Ranch For Kids Staff"
November has been dubbed National Adoption Month, so I'd suspect it might air at least before the end of the year.
.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Adoption Disruption featured on 20/20 - September 5, 2008
I received this in an email from Joyce Sterkel, who is the manager of The Ranch for Kids, a Montana program that offers respite and adoption services for children who have experienced adoption disruptions.
"ABC's 20/20 will air a program about adoption disruption on Sept. 5th 2008. This program was filmed in part at The Ranch For Kids. They rescheduled us from the original date in July so as to avoid the Olympics and political conventions. There will be a follow-up segment on Nightline with my adult son Sasha who was adopted from a disruption at age 14.
Please give us and ABC any feed back after you see the program.
We are hoping for the best and that it will draw awareness to the growing problems for families with international adoptees.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
Our best wishes and thanks for continued support of our efforts with families and children in crisis."
The note was signed by Joyce Sterkel, Director & Bill Sutley Ranch Manager
I know I'll be watching.
Check your local television listings for time.
"ABC's 20/20 will air a program about adoption disruption on Sept. 5th 2008. This program was filmed in part at The Ranch For Kids. They rescheduled us from the original date in July so as to avoid the Olympics and political conventions. There will be a follow-up segment on Nightline with my adult son Sasha who was adopted from a disruption at age 14.
Please give us and ABC any feed back after you see the program.
We are hoping for the best and that it will draw awareness to the growing problems for families with international adoptees.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
Our best wishes and thanks for continued support of our efforts with families and children in crisis."
The note was signed by Joyce Sterkel, Director & Bill Sutley Ranch Manager
I know I'll be watching.
Check your local television listings for time.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Don't be lost in translation
If you're interested in adopting from a non-English speaking country and have been trying to do research on the Web only to find a promising site is presented in a language you don't understand, don't despair: Google Translate is to the rescue!
Check it out:
http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en
Choose from more than 20 languages.
Check it out:
http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en
Choose from more than 20 languages.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Weather Report: One Bountiful (Not to Mention Kind of Adorable) Snowstorm (part 3)
The weather report is excellent. Snowfall, er, Snowflakes, all year round--well, sort of! The Snowflake staff has been working on a proposal for a new grant that is being made available this fall. Funding from that grant will take the program through 2011.
RWA: Tell us a little about the government grant the agency received, the one that helped fund the educational videos about Snowflakes (see links below).
SF: In 2002 the government established a grant specifically to fund efforts to increase awareness regarding the option for embryo donation and adoption. Nightlight has applied for and successfully been awarded monies from the Department of Health and Human Services four times. The focus of our work to increase awareness about this very unique form of adoption has been establishing relationships with fertility clinics (the gateway to the potential donating family), adoption agencies, and efforts to educate the general public.
RWA: What is the next step for Snowflakes?
SF: As embryo donation and adoption awareness increases the Snowflakes program continues to expand. We believe in supporting life in all of its stages of development and that our efforts to match donors and adopters will bring joy and hope for many more families. There are more than 500,000 embryos in frozen storage in the United States. We would be delighted to have more adoption agencies establish embryo adoption programs. We hope that fertility clinics will promote the option of donating to their patients with remaining embryos.
RWA: Again, how can people contact you if they have more questions?
SF: The manager of our Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption program is Megan Corcoran. She can be reached at 714-278-1020. On-line information about embryo donation and adoption is available at http://www.embryoadoption.org/ or http://www.snowflakes.org/.
MORE: Utilizing a government grant, the Snowflakes program's intent was to create several videos that would help educate both the general population and those couples interested in embryo adoption. Here are the links to view the series of 5 messages:
http://www.embryoadoption.org/videos/video_index.cfm
http://www.embryoadoption.org/videos/video_index_2.cfm
RWA: Tell us a little about the government grant the agency received, the one that helped fund the educational videos about Snowflakes (see links below).
SF: In 2002 the government established a grant specifically to fund efforts to increase awareness regarding the option for embryo donation and adoption. Nightlight has applied for and successfully been awarded monies from the Department of Health and Human Services four times. The focus of our work to increase awareness about this very unique form of adoption has been establishing relationships with fertility clinics (the gateway to the potential donating family), adoption agencies, and efforts to educate the general public.
RWA: What is the next step for Snowflakes?
SF: As embryo donation and adoption awareness increases the Snowflakes program continues to expand. We believe in supporting life in all of its stages of development and that our efforts to match donors and adopters will bring joy and hope for many more families. There are more than 500,000 embryos in frozen storage in the United States. We would be delighted to have more adoption agencies establish embryo adoption programs. We hope that fertility clinics will promote the option of donating to their patients with remaining embryos.
RWA: Again, how can people contact you if they have more questions?
SF: The manager of our Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption program is Megan Corcoran. She can be reached at 714-278-1020. On-line information about embryo donation and adoption is available at http://www.embryoadoption.org/ or http://www.snowflakes.org/.
MORE: Utilizing a government grant, the Snowflakes program's intent was to create several videos that would help educate both the general population and those couples interested in embryo adoption. Here are the links to view the series of 5 messages:
http://www.embryoadoption.org/videos/video_index.cfm
http://www.embryoadoption.org/videos/video_index_2.cfm
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Snowflakes, FedEx and a baby boy? (part 2)
Picking up on our discussion with Kimberly Tyson from Snowflakes, today we're talking about the emotional issues that are part of adopting embryos--and those that are part of giving them up for adoption as well.
Editor's note: Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption Program is part of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. REAL WORLD ADOPT does not have an opinion on the reasons given for why embryo adoption exists or should exist.
RWA: Do the donors and the adoptive parents ever meet? Stay in touch? Do Snowflake "siblings" stay with one family or are they adopted todifferent families, as is the case, for example, with sperm donorbabies?
SF: The level of future interaction between the donating family and the adopting family is established by those families. Some families simply exchange emails and photos, some families meet periodically (like a family reunion) so that the genetic siblings can build relationships.
When a genetic family chooses to donate their embryos through the Snowflakes program they are committing to donating all of their remaining embryos to one family, whether they have two or twenty remaining embryos. In some cases, if the adopting family does not use all of the adopted embryos within a particular timeframe they will be returned (contractually) to the donating family. At that point the donating (genetic) family may choose to donate to another family.
RWA: What are some of the emotional issues about adopting embryos--for the parents and for the child?
SF: Many donating families struggle with the idea of allowing another family to raise their genetic off-spring. They realize that the children they now love and cherish as a result of their IVF treatments came from those same embryos. Many feel a deep sense of responsibility to their embryos because they created them and they believe they are human beings at their earliest stage of life. Many potential donating families keep their remaining embryos frozen because they cannot make the choice to allow another family to raise them, nor can they abide by destroying them outright or via scientific research.
RWA: What is your favorite story to tell about your job?
SF: We love to tell the story about a family who adopted embryos from two different families. [The Snowflakes program guarantees a minimum of six embryos, those embryos may come from one or two families.] One embryo was adopted from one family, and five embryos were adopted from a second family. The time came to transport the embryos to the adopting family’s clinic via Fed Ex. The adopting mother was prepped for her embryo transfer and the physician doing the frozen embryo transfer asked for the five embryos to be sent to the clinic. The one embryo from the first family remained frozen at the original IVF clinic. The physician felt the statistics were better with five, so he wanted the five for the transfer. Unfortunately, when the five embryos were thawed, none survived. Frantic because he had a patient prepped for transfer with no embryos, he called our agency to have the one embryo sent over. Fed Ex priority overnight delivered the one embryo the next day, and the transfer occurred. Against statistical evidence, two weeks later the pregnancy test was positive! Nine months later a beautiful baby was born from that one embryo. We tell this story often because prospective adopting parents get stuck playing a numbers game. The truth is it only takes one.
RWA: How can people contact you if they have more questions?
SF: The manager of our Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption program is Megan Corcoran. She can be reached at 714-278-1020. On-line information about embryo donation and adoption is available at http://www.embryoadoption.org/ or http://www.snowflakes.org/.
Editor's note: Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption Program is part of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. REAL WORLD ADOPT does not have an opinion on the reasons given for why embryo adoption exists or should exist.
RWA: Do the donors and the adoptive parents ever meet? Stay in touch? Do Snowflake "siblings" stay with one family or are they adopted todifferent families, as is the case, for example, with sperm donorbabies?
SF: The level of future interaction between the donating family and the adopting family is established by those families. Some families simply exchange emails and photos, some families meet periodically (like a family reunion) so that the genetic siblings can build relationships.
When a genetic family chooses to donate their embryos through the Snowflakes program they are committing to donating all of their remaining embryos to one family, whether they have two or twenty remaining embryos. In some cases, if the adopting family does not use all of the adopted embryos within a particular timeframe they will be returned (contractually) to the donating family. At that point the donating (genetic) family may choose to donate to another family.
RWA: What are some of the emotional issues about adopting embryos--for the parents and for the child?
SF: Many donating families struggle with the idea of allowing another family to raise their genetic off-spring. They realize that the children they now love and cherish as a result of their IVF treatments came from those same embryos. Many feel a deep sense of responsibility to their embryos because they created them and they believe they are human beings at their earliest stage of life. Many potential donating families keep their remaining embryos frozen because they cannot make the choice to allow another family to raise them, nor can they abide by destroying them outright or via scientific research.
RWA: What is your favorite story to tell about your job?
SF: We love to tell the story about a family who adopted embryos from two different families. [The Snowflakes program guarantees a minimum of six embryos, those embryos may come from one or two families.] One embryo was adopted from one family, and five embryos were adopted from a second family. The time came to transport the embryos to the adopting family’s clinic via Fed Ex. The adopting mother was prepped for her embryo transfer and the physician doing the frozen embryo transfer asked for the five embryos to be sent to the clinic. The one embryo from the first family remained frozen at the original IVF clinic. The physician felt the statistics were better with five, so he wanted the five for the transfer. Unfortunately, when the five embryos were thawed, none survived. Frantic because he had a patient prepped for transfer with no embryos, he called our agency to have the one embryo sent over. Fed Ex priority overnight delivered the one embryo the next day, and the transfer occurred. Against statistical evidence, two weeks later the pregnancy test was positive! Nine months later a beautiful baby was born from that one embryo. We tell this story often because prospective adopting parents get stuck playing a numbers game. The truth is it only takes one.
RWA: How can people contact you if they have more questions?
SF: The manager of our Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption program is Megan Corcoran. She can be reached at 714-278-1020. On-line information about embryo donation and adoption is available at http://www.embryoadoption.org/ or http://www.snowflakes.org/.
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